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School of Public Policy and Leadership News

The School of Public Policy and Leadership employs an interdisciplinary approach to create knowledge and understanding to support effective policy and governance through collaborations of faculty, students, and the greater community. Our programs enable students to master the key principles of public management, research, and public policy so they can spark change, improvement, and resiliency in communities.

Current Public Policy and Leadership News

UNLV alumna Aileen Pastor relaxes on a park bench on campus with her feet up
People |

Urban Affairs Alumna of the Year — and die-hard Rebel — Aileen Pastor parlays her internship into a career with the Regional Transportation Commission.

Undergrad researcher Benjamin Sabir helps H. Jeremy Cho examine an atmospheric water harvesting device. (Jeff Scheid/UNLV)
Campus News |

A monthly roundup of the top news stories featuring UNLV staff and students.

A portrait of Jaewon Lim, an associate professor of public policy.
Campus News |

UNLV's School of Public Policy and Leadership offers courses in data visualization that are helping to create a workforce pipeline.

Graduate business students business international businesses in Chile.
People |

MPA student Andrea Rangelova gets a taste of Chile’s business practices to enrich her future professional experience.

View of UNLV campus with the Strip in background
Business and Community |

The College Opportunity Program provides access to online certificate and degree programs, at no cost to MGM Resorts Employees.

commencement profile (josh hawkins/unlv)
People |

President Keith E. Whitfield honors six graduates who have shown exemplary commitment to both the community and their studies.

Public Policy and Leadership In The News

Kill the DJ

In 2024, elections are set to take place in at least 64 countries, representing about 49% of the global population. That's a lot to fool. And this time, spreading like fire, AI technologies can potentially influence voters in ways we've never seen before.

Las Vegas Review Journal

I must respond to several writings of Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks on climate change. In particular, Joecks recently argued that the lead culprit of the summer 2024 Las Vegas heat wave, peaking at 120 degrees, was the 2022 volcanic eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano. This is a misattribution.

Las Vegas Review Journal

Heat has claimed the lives of more people in 2024 in Southern Nevada than in any prior year on record, officials said. The latest round of heat-related-death data from the Clark County coroner’s office, released on Thursday, shows that heat was a factor in the deaths of 342 people. It’s without question that the toll will continue to rise, especially as it can take up to 90 days to determine a cause of death — and whether heat was a factor.

KVVU-TV: Fox 5

There is a desperate need for more charges in Nevada according to some EV drivers. FOX5 spoke with drivers who are often forced to wait in lines to charge up. “I am swapping this in tomorrow and getting a gas vehicle,” Steven Blocker told FOX5. Blocker, an Uber driver using an electric vehicle, just moved to Henderson from San Diego a month and a half ago.

KNPR News

In fewer than 100 days, Nevadans head to the polls. And while most of us are thinking of who we want as president, there are dozens of other officials we have the right to vote for.

KVVU-TV: Fox 5

After nearly three days of closures along I-15 and backups along I-40, California Highway Patrol announced Sunday the end of a closure caused by a truck fire that sparked Friday. San Bernadino Fire Department reported the fire around 10 a.m. on Friday, stating that a semi-truck carrying lithium batteries flipped on northbound I-15 near Baker and burst into flames.

Public Policy and Leadership Experts

An expert on local government and public policy. 
An expert in violence prevention programs.
An expert on HR management and development.
Lee Bernick is a professor with expertise in state and local public policy, survey research, public budgeting, and legislative behavior.
An expert on sustainability governance by cities, states, and corporations globally.
An expert in public policy and governance.

Recent Public Policy and Leadership Accomplishments

The National Academy of Public Administration has announced 42 new inductions for the 2024 Class of Academy Fellows, including professor Edgar E. Ramirez de la Cruz (Public Policy and Leadership). The National Academy of Public Administration is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, chartered by Congress in 1967 to provide expert advice to…
Jacob D. Skousen (Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education) published a paper titled, "Making Nevada Schools Safer: The State of Empirical Evidence." The policy paper reviews the measures taken to improve school safety. He reports that the evidence shows that overall safety in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools has…
A new study led by professor Ben Leffel (Public Policy and Leadership) has been selected for the inaugural Berkeley Haas Sustainable Business Research Prize as a finalist, which "recognizes research with the greatest potential to spur immediate change in the face of environmental crises". The study, by Leffel and University of Michigan coauthors…
Ph.D. student Aaron Colleta (Public Policy and Leadership) has been honored as a Founders' Fellow by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) this year. The Founders' Fellows program is designed to support and advance the next generation of public service leaders, providing significant professional development opportunities. Aaron…
Ben Leffel (Public Policy and Leadership) has published a new piece in npj Climate Action (with coauthors Don Grant and Evan Johnson) on what matters for decarbonizing power plants: They show that for the world's power plants, what matters for carbon emissions reductions (2009-2018) is not national-level climate policy, but city-level climate…
Ben Leffel (Public Policy and Leadership) is lead author in a new study published in Cities , titled "Not so polycentric: The stratified structure & national drivers of transnational municipal networks" that has mapped the known universe of cities in these global governance networks. This analysis of over 10,000 cities and their…